Sagittarian Soloists

Sagittarius Singer Summary

The most famous performers born between November 22 and December 21st have certain things in common. They are amazing performers in a very specialized sound and immediately stick out when paired with other musicians. They are born soloist who when forced to work within a group designed for other artists cannot succeed. That’s not to say that some of these artists haven’t tried to sing within groups that matched their era and genre of music, but the groups never truly worked until the songs were built around the Sagittarius among them.

Female Soloists*

• Billie Eilish
• Tina Turner
• Britney Spears
• Taylor Swift
• Miley Cyrus
• Christina Aguilera
• Rita Ora
• Teyana Taylor

Can you imagine Billie Eilish in a girl’s group? No, you can’t. Actually, I just saw an SNL skit (Santa Baby) where two cast members were singing background vocals to Billie Eilish as host and it just didn’t work at all. I know from other skits that Kate McKinnon and Ego Nwodim (the background vocalists) can truly sing well, but you put them next to Billie Eilish’s unique soulful voice it was like hearing seagulls singing background to a songbird.

There are exceptions to this where pop moguls attempted to foist famous singers into girls group. The most obvious one that comes to mind are Christina Aguilera singing Moulin Rouge with a bunch of other famous pop stars; it is obvious the arrangement was done in such a way that Christina was intended to be the focal point. There are other very powerful performances, but the instrumentation and other vocalist build up (2:24) lead up Christina Aguilera's solo (2:37-2:55). With lots of talented singers in the collaboration we still are clued in by the video and extra runs that Christina is meant to be the diva, the star. Yet this song is an outlier in her discography.

Among the female powerhouse vocalists (and there are a lot of them) they are most successful when they are the soloists. That's not to say they are performing alone though, they often have a team of people who know their voice and build the sound around them. An example of that would be Billie Eilish performing with her brother Finneas or music the sound engineering he created.

Male Musicians in bands

• Jimi Hendrix (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
• Keith Richards (Rolling Stones)
• Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath, Ozzfest)
• Billy Idol (Chelsea, Generation X)
• Frank Vincent Zappa (The Mothers of Invention)
• Nikki Sixx (Motley Crew)
• Jim Morrison (The Doors)
• Kim Seok-jin (BTS)

The performer who immediately jumped out at me as I researched this month was Jimi Hendrix. He's part of the reason I named this article Sagittarian Soloists. Jimi Hendrix began his career in an era where the guitar was intended to be an instrumental support to the true star of a vocalist. He was very talented with what he could do on his instrument, but he kept getting told to tone down his showmanship and skills to fit in with the artist he was working for. It’s not until The Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed around him that his guitar skills were amazing audience.

Some Sagittarius musicians like Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath) and Nikki Sixx (Motley Crew) did find bands that they could play with. However, like Jimi Hendrix, their showmanship often overshadowed the actual band. When I first heard about Ozzy it was not about the Black Sabbath music or Ozfest, but because I heard about a crazy musician who had bit a bat. He had also been fired from the band multiple times and had a lot of success with his solo projects like Ozzfest. Nikki Sixx was a bassist for Motley Crew, but his antics behind the scenes were more famous than Vince Neil’s vocals. They’re amazing musicians, but their stage presence is what brought fans coming back.

The Moonlight as Musicians

• Jamie Foxx
• Don Johnson
• Krysten Ritter

I was surprised as I was doing my research to find multiple actors listed among the more prominent musicians. Personally I find their acting chops far superior than their musical skills, but they did achieve some recognition for their songs as well as their acting chops.

The recording below is Pretty Girls by Krysten Ritter (stage name Ex Vivian) which was recorded shortly before her acting career blew up.

The Support Team

The majority of the musicians listed this month are soloists, and yet they all have supporting musicians that heavily influence their sounds. Imagine the above guitar riffs without the drum, accompanying bass guitar, and the unique costuming. These artists don’t shine without something in their background that makes their music unique. Billie Eilish has her brother producing her and a lot of her most unique sounds in her teenage years were things Finneas mixed.

This element predates modern music with the classical example of Beethoven. It’s amazing Beethoven wrote his final symphony deaf, but that symphony could not have been performed while he was still alive if another conductor hadn’t stepped in who could actually hear his orchestra. They are savants at their musicianship, but the Sagittarius artist often needs another person to complete their musical masterpieces.

Below is an excerpt from the 2006 film Copying Beethoven which is perhaps not the most accurate dramatization, but entertaining nonetheless.

This is a fictional adaptation of the scene, but the closest I can find. Beethoven was completely deaf by the time his last symphony was performed, so he could not hear the orchestra in order to conduct properly. The story goes that his pace got so far off at one point he was still conducting after the orchestra had stopped, and the soprano’s had to tell him to turn around to see the audience applauding.

Beethoven is perhaps the most extravagant example I can think of, but I find it throughout these artists as I research them. The Sagittarius has a support team that affects their sound, for good or bad. Recently our music news has been dominated by the news of a pop icon who's support team grew harmful. More on the conservatorship later.

Britney Spears’ early career had a signature effect to her vocals that was clearly a product of sound engineering. Actually, several of these Sagittarius female pop icons were products of the Disney machine: they focused on an eccentricity in the artists voice and manufactured a sound they thought was marketable around the artist (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Miley Cyrus). I still have yet to hear Christina Aguilera flip into her natural head voice, because her signature is belting even high notes with her amazing chest voice. Some vocal coach must have taught her to lean into that early on. However, when the “supporting” musicians behind these artists move on a lot of the Sagittarius artists have butterfly moments where their style drastically changes.

The Butterfly Moment

Obviously the Disney Machine pop stars have a lot of examples of styles changing, but I think the best example of a Sagittarius truly evolving over time with the change of her support team is Taylor Swift.

Fifteen by Taylor Swift. I know. I know I should pick Taylor's version rather than the older versions, but the imagery and even the sound engineering of the original are important to my point.

Taylor Swift’s early music in that country-pop hybrid always had her ensemble inlaid with a banjo player and her red-headed best friend on the violin. After her transition to pop the ensemble and producing team changed.

However, you can't tell me you can’t tell me that the Blank Space interactive music video (More info on that here) and backing track was all done by Taylor herself. She had a team that brought her vision to life. Even now as she’s remaking Taylor’s Versions of her older songs she’s still building her musical vision with a team. It’s just the team she handpicked and her musicianship has improved.

Some of these artists have multiple moments where they’re sound and look drastically change. When the artists is allowed to change the resulting sound is not temporary so much as an evolution. Miley Cyrus after Disney was never going back to the Hannah Montana era music (like The Climb). There was a period where all her country charm was buried with this cold white pop aesthetic. It was clear with the lyrics and imagery that the team behind Miley Cyrus wanted to signal a more outrageous tone with We Can't Stop and Wrecking Ball (below).

However, these music videos still felt like they were more manipulations by the producers she worked with for a particular persona. Miley Cyrus’s second huge vocal transformation in the past few years involved a medical issue, but the resulting sound is something so rich and authentic it feels like this was always what her music was meant to be. It clearly shows influence of the first and second versions of her as an artist, but it feels comfortable. This truly is a butterfly moment in that the artist has transformed. She will never become a caterpiller again, but her sound is the result of all her experiences.

Producer Fights

Unfortunately, with the Disney crowd or overly involved producers there can be false changes as artists experiment with their sounds or change producers. It seems like ancient history now, but Britney Spears song Toxic was way more experimental than the safe bubbly pop of her early albums. However, in her case the “supporting” team seized control of her musical identity and forced her into a particular sound. There are rumors she worked on an album called Original Doll that was more authentically her, but her record label wouldn’t allow her to produce it. Perhaps free from her conservatorship Britney fans will, at last get to hear the music she wants make.

As earlier touched on, Taylor Swift is going through her old albums and discography to make versions of songs her earlier producers wouldn’t allow. She is mature enough as an artist she knows what will make her music sound great. She has had the opportunity to butterfly twice; she knows what sounds she wants to make and who to help her get them right.

Another artist who has revisited earlier works to reexperience them is actually Ozzy Osbourne. The rock legend is in his 70s now, but Ozzy kept touring later on in his life. He’s acknowledged that a lot of his time touring when he was younger are difficult to remember, because of his long substance abuse. He has been roughly seven years sober and continues to tour (when health permits) so he can continue making memories and sharing rock.

Unfortunately, not all of the artists on this list ever reach that point. Who knows what amazing music Jimi Hendrix would have created had he made it past that fated age of twenty-seven? I do know with all these Sagittarius Soloists that are still alive, I will watch keenly what new music or evolution of their sound comes next.